The ship was built by John Brown of Clydebank for the Great Eastern Railway as one of a contract for two new steamers and launched on 26 October 1919.[2] She was placed on the Harwich to Antwerp route.[3]
In 1923 she was acquired by the London and North Eastern Railway. On 20 November 1932 she collided with the American steamer Hastings in a thick fog off Zeebrugge, but was only lightly damaged, and able to continue her voyage.[4]